New Head skis and boots for 2011Head's new range for 2011 includes Formula 1-style energy recovery tech and a flexible cut-out in their freeride skis.
The Peak series of all-mountain and freeride skis needed pepping up looks-wise to spark interest in what was a sound series of products. It's now lost the Teutonic graphics from last season, gone fluoro and picked up what Head are calling variable rocker, or Flowride.
Essentially it's a cutout near the tip of the ski with two rubbery damping blocks in the gap. The intention is to allow the tip to flex more when in softer conditions, creating a rocker effect. It's a novel idea and we'll be interested to see how it works compared with either a conventional or rockered ski.
The other tech gizmo is called KERS - Kinetic Energy Recovery System - based on Head's proven Chip piezo-electric system, where movement is turned into electric impulses. In the existing Chip system skis, this electrical current is fed back into fibres in the ski which stiffen or soften acording to the feedback, and damp vibration.
What KERS is bringing to the party is the ability to store some of this energy and then release it at the appropriate moment, which on a powerful piste ski would be as you're coming out of a turn. We thought that KERS in Formula 1 involved a flywheel and mechanical devices, but since there's clearly no flywheel on any of the skis we've seen we'll have to settle for the electrically-based system.
Anyway, after all this, the ski we thought was most interesting featuring KERS was the Titan, which is a wide-bodied (76mm underfoot) pistey-looking ski with a 16m turn radius and strong sidewall construction.
We detect a trend amongst the manufacters for full power fast piste skis with a mid turn radius and enough width underfoot to support good skiers off-piste. More trends to follow over the next few days as reports from the industry shows come in.
Posted by Dickie Fincher - Thu, 28/01/2010 - 11:56am
Head's new range for 2011 includes Formula 1-style energy recovery tech and a flexible cut-out in their freeride skis.
The Peak series of all-mountain and freeride skis needed pepping up looks-wise to spark interest in what was a sound series of products. It's now lost the Teutonic graphics from last season, gone fluoro and picked up what Head are calling variable rocker, or Flowride.
Essentially it's a cutout near the tip of the ski with two rubbery damping blocks in the gap. The intention is to allow the tip to flex more when in softer conditions, creating a rocker effect. It's a novel idea and we'll be interested to see how it works compared with either a conventional or rockered ski.
The other tech gizmo is called KERS - Kinetic Energy Recovery System - based on Head's proven Chip piezo-electric system, where movement is turned into electric impulses. In the existing Chip system skis, this electrical current is fed back into fibres in the ski which stiffen or soften acording to the feedback, and damp vibration.
What KERS is bringing to the party is the ability to store some of this energy and then release it at the appropriate moment, which on a powerful piste ski would be as you're coming out of a turn. We thought that KERS in Formula 1 involved a flywheel and mechanical devices, but since there's clearly no flywheel on any of the skis we've seen we'll have to settle for the electrically-based system.
Anyway, after all this, the ski we thought was most interesting featuring KERS was the Titan, which is a wide-bodied (76mm underfoot) pistey-looking ski with a 16m turn radius and strong sidewall construction.
We detect a trend amongst the manufacters for full power fast piste skis with a mid turn radius and enough width underfoot to support good skiers off-piste. More trends to follow over the next few days as reports from the industry shows come in.